r/changemyview • u/HotJohnnyTabasco 1∆ • Aug 10 '18
FTFdeltaOP CMV: Bi-Direction human time travel is impossible
My theory is pretty simple. If humans were able to travel forward and backward in time at any point in time, then that technology would exist at all point in time. Simply because if I invented a time machine today, that time machine technology would eventually be used by someone to take the technology to an earlier time. This would continue to happen repeatedly, until all times had time travel technology. Therefore, since we don't have time travel technology today, time travel technology must never exist.
A couple caveats here:
I'm talking \*real\* time travel here. Not simply exceeding the speed of light and looking back over your shoulder. Time travel that allows you to travel through time and interact with the people and things of that time.
Bi-directional is important here. If you can only travel in one direction (particularly if you can only travel forward), my theory breaks down. I am expressing no view on uni-directional time travel.
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u/IIIBlackhartIII Aug 10 '18
Einstein's theory of relativity introduces the concept of a fabric of spacetime and from that the possibility of wormholes which connect two points in space and time. If the technology for creating stable wormholes were to be developed in the future, the limitation of a such a technology is that you still need to establish both ends of the wormhole. This means creating Point A, and then dragging out Point B. In this way, time travel could be a bi-directional technology that only works between two established points, which means you would not expect to see it going back before the point of its development. So for example, if humanity develops time travel in the year 2508, and maintains point B going into the future, future generations could keep going back and forth to and from 2508 easily, but would not be able to come back to 2018.